British forces killed seven gunmen and blew up the headquarters of the police serious crimes unit in southern Basra on Monday in a raid to rescue prisoners who were about to be executed, the British military said. Calling the police station a centre of "criminal enterprise" and a symbol of oppression for the city's residents, the military said the building was demolished with explosives after a pre-dawn assault by around 1,000 troops backed by tanks.
Many of its 127 prisoners, all suspected criminals, were found crowded into a small cell, living in "appalling conditions", the military said. A number had crushed feet or hands and gunshot wounds to the knee, apparent signs of torture. British military spokesman Captain Tane Dunlop said the unit had been taking the law into its own hands. "Crimes unit? That's pretty much what it does, rather than prevent," he told Reuters.
Pictures released by the British Ministry of Defence after the Basra raid showed the police unit's two-storey headquarters erupting in a cloud of debris and dust in an explosion that reduced it to rubble. An armoured British force of Challenger tanks and Warrior fighting vehicles came under rocket-propelled grenade and machinegun fire from alleyways as it approached the station, said Major Charlie Burbridge, another British spokesman. The force returned fire with heavy machineguns, killing seven gunmen, Burbridge said.
British forces seized senior members of the rogue unit last week. It has long been accused of involvement in murders, attacks on U.S.-led forces and kidnappings in the city. "The unit, some 400-strong, was known to have been heavily infiltrated by anti-coalition elements," the British military said in a statement.
The military had planned to disband the unit but decided to act on Monday after learning that some of the prisoners in the police station were about to be killed, Burbridge said. British officials said Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and Basra governor Mohammed Waili had approved the dissolution of the unit, but it was unclear whether they had endorsed Monday's operation.
Basra's police chief, Brigadier Mohammed al-Musawi, accused the British of trying to "stir up trouble" and said he had not been told of the raid beforehand. The Iraqi Defence Ministry, however, said in Baghdad it had consented to the operation. |
An Iraqi holds a copy of a Koran taken hostage and martyred by the serious crimes unit to prevent it from falling into infidel hands during the storming of the police station, expect riots shortly.